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Hiring someone to help

I know this has been discussed before, but I really need some advice from those of you who hire someone to help with your listings. I am drowning in inventory. I can find items, the problem is getting the pics taken and getting them listed. The thrill of the hunt is great for me, but I also work full time and I just don't want to spend my free time listing anymore. My husband is retired and wants to spend time together when I'm not working. How do you pay someone,by the hour - by the piece? I have a friend who would love to do the listings - I just want to be fair in what I pay her. Suggestions?

Re: Hiring someone to help

I would look at the cost factors. How many listings can they put up in an hour with the same wording you have... in the same style you have? How good are their pictures going to be and will they be of the same quality as yours in all the views you want too?

How much time will you need to take to train someone? Then when you get them all nicely trained on the ins and outs of ebay... why would they work for you for $10. an hour? Or for a percentage of the sale when they can get 100% by setting up their own selling ID after you teach them?

In the meantime they will see how you shop... where you shop... and how you handle customers etc etc etc.

How much are you making now on your sales minus expenses? Figure it up and see what percentage of that amount would be going to an employee and how much goes into your pocket in the end. When you add up the numbers will an employee put $2.00 more dollars in your pocket or $2,000. in your pocket every 30 days?

And once you get that employee trained... why would they settle for $10. an hour when they could put the $2,000.00+ in their pocket after they learn how to set up their own store on ebay from watching/learning from you?

And you have to check everything they do for errors in descriptions, shipping... or something that was missed on the item. etc etc too. The work will seldom mirror your own titles and description unless they have retail writing experience. Who takes the loss in money or ratings... if they mess up? You do.

I don't know of any small seller that made money with an employee... after all the time it took to train someone to think and act like the seller. Maybe it would work out if you are listing... say a room full of small appliances... or a truck load of inventory you bought and the employee has no clue how you do your buying.

If you have special places you shop and buy... then the employee will know too. Eventually ebay employees go off on their own and take everything they learned about selling on ebay with them. They know where you get your items... which stores, TS or consignments shops... and any other shopping secrets you might have.

Why should they settle for a few dollars... after you teach them everything about selling on ebay... when they can have their own ebay store and put all profit in their pocket?

There are a couple of threads on the subject. If you can hire labor to clean, wash, iron... then maybe that would work. But I would not train anyone to be my competitor in the end. ... up to you. ... just my 2 cents worth.

Re: Hiring someone to help

I have totally opposite problem. I am super stellar with listing, item never sit unlisted for more than couple days. But I do have problem finding decent items at decent prices. I just paid $15 for NWT J. Jill shirt (and was on sale, $30 originally) in Goodwill!

I would never hire anybody. I don't trust anyone with measurements and taking photos.

Re: Hiring someone to help

Good idea... maybe try to get the hubby to take some photos to start. I know 2 sellers that did that. It was a slow go at first and then the DH got the FEVER. Ha! One hubby saw an item he took photos of go into a bidding war and all of a sudden it was "the family vacation fund money". Then the hubby found some stuff he wanted to sell... guy stuff and she opened up a selling ID for him. He started out with selling his extra tools and then looked for certain items on their shopping trips. He took most of the photos of all items and he started doing his own descriptions too. And they bought something special... a big TV I think too. He got the FEVER...

It was about the same with the other hubby only the wife has a misc. store... so all his Finds went in her store too. But he took most of the photos after a while... and she was able to get more listings up. But first the DH needs to get the FEVER to see money coming in and think it had to do with the work HE did ... such as the photos.

Re: Hiring someone to help

I'm a part time seller, work full time, and DH is a student. While he stays busy, he has more time at home than I do. He is my "shipper". When he was unemployed, but actively looking for work once--I tried to train him to take pics for me. I would leave him a pile of 10-15 things for him to photo for me. He wanted to "contribute" while he was inbetween jobs. I've got 3 words................. "BLESS HIS HEART". Yeah. I had to gently fire him. Why? Because I'm **bleep** and I'm a control freak. At least I was back then (I've since lightened up how much time I spend on my photos). I found that unless I pictured the items, handled the item, measured the item and folded the item, it was harder for me to describe (I used to do longer descriptions). Having my husband help with the actual pictured/listing was a failure. He's not a failure, I'm just controlling. He's a great shipper tho!

I have to ask you tho, is it for this ID?

The only reason I ask, and please do not take this the wrong way, but looking at your closed listings, it just doesn't look like there is enough $$ coming in to pay anyone.

Would I hire anyone in the future? .......maybe........ but I think I would have to be profitting $8K (maybe $10K) a month before I paid anyone.

Re: Hiring someone to help

I have hired a young girl to help me occasionally, I showed her how i take photos but she just never seemed to get the hang of it consistently. She is great at dressing my half mannis so that is what she does, I wait until I have good amount of item to take pics of. I pay her what she would make babysitting plus bonus of food and Clothing, it works for both of us. DH helps to take things to the PO but other than that it is all me, I am too much of a control freak. Not that my listings are perfect but I can live with my mistakes

"I don't want to brag or make anybody jealous,
but I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high school."

And once you get that employee trained... why would they settle for $10. an hour when they could put the $2,000.00+ in their pocket after they learn how to set up their own store on ebay from watching/learning from you?

This is what I have paid teens. They are happy to get this kind of cash. They are not looking to do it as a business. They are looking to make some cash. And, if they do learn something and then go into business for themselves, so much the better.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************eBay is not one size fits all. There is no shame in selling low end items nor glory in high end designers. Money is one color: green************************************************************************************************************************************************

Re: Hiring someone to help

And I completely agree with freshblooming. Except I don't pay that much for the work. I've only hire one teen and that was just to help them out for a couple of weeks while they were looking for a new position. It was an equally good experience for me to learn how to plan work for my part timer and manage my own schedule.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************eBay is not one size fits all. There is no shame in selling low end items nor glory in high end designers. Money is one color: green************************************************************************************************************************************************

Re: Hiring someone to help

I've been working on this question too. I work full time and have been needing to put in OT lately so my eBay time has diminished even more. I have 2 teens who are working part time but still manage to come to me asking for money so I told them from now on if they are asking for money they have to put in an hour of eBay help for $15. One of them did Okay - not horrible pics but it took him 3 hours to iron and take pics of less than 20 things. The other one did it for me for the first time yesterday and the pics are horrible - I didn't give him as much instruction because I know he's seen me taking pics so many times. Obviously he never paid attention because almost none of them were usable.

I think it's going to take a little bit to get them on track but I can see the benefit of having them learn to iron and take pictures. Just that little help I think is worth $15/hr. And they're both boys and have no interest in doing this as a business ;0)

Re: Hiring someone to help

I have one employee and she works 20-30 hours per week. She provides various jobs for my Ebay business, but her main function is to load the listings and prepare shoes and handbags for photographing.

For example, she will clean, polish, stuff and prepare shoes and handbags while I sit there and take the photos. Once it is photographed, she spends the next day at her house loading everything to Auctiva and saving it. I then check it over for accuracy and take it live.

Same thing for clothing. I will photograph several items, measure and call measurements as she writes them down. She then loads to Auctiva while I go on to photographing more.

You can always make an employee sign a non-compete contract if you're worried they will learn from you and then go off and do it themselves.

When I hired the gal I have now, I ran an ad on Craigslist and got an overwhelming response of qualified canidates. I had to pull the ad I got so many calls.

If you want to take your business to the next level, you'll need help. Good luck.

Re: Hiring someone to help

With that said, you need a lot more listings and sales to be able to afford an employee. Do you sell on Ebay for fun/hobby, or is this a business? If this is a business, you need to run it like one and work on profibility.

Re: Hiring someone to help

There was a comment last year from a clothing seller. They had a gardening service mow their lawn every 2 weeks. Both hated yard work. One day while talking to the gardener she learned that the gardener's daughter was interested in photography and was taking classes at school.

Long story made short... the girl was excited to take all her ebay photos for an hourly wage... but when she saw the clothes... she wanted clothes instead of money... so the payment was in clothing etc.

The seller was amazed at the photos she took of fabric detail etc. and of her other ideas for display. The girl set up a box of beach sand for display of some water/beach items. Ha! The girl had a couple of friends come over to model hard to display items (no faces, just legs for pants with detail). And there was issues with taking photos of plus size clothing with too much pinning... and the girl put together a clever body form to display those large size items.

The seller said it looked like all her photos were taken in a professional studio. There was no issues with taking photos of certain color clothing as the gal had a photo FIX for everything. It was a great year for both seller and student. It was a sad day when the girl graduated from school and moved from the area...

The seller gave her a written reference for her Resume too.... "taking photos for an online business". She knows the girl used the reference as she had 2 employment inquires the following year. In this case... the seller learned how to take photos from the girl...

Re: Hiring someone to help

I actually just started using a retired woman to measure items and note fabric content. I gave her a couple of totes and she did them at her own pace. I paid her by the piece and it came out to around $10 per hour. I hate slowing down for measurements and fabric content when I am listing so I think this will be a huge help. I am also going to start using a cleaning service for my home because I found that helped me work harder at eBay because I wasn't distracted by cleaning bathrooms when I could be listing and easily cover the expense of the maid plus profit above.

Re: Hiring someone to help

Yes, if you have inventory that needs to be listed I would absolutely get help. I haven't been what I would call full time since I stopped selling with my sister on another ID, but the time and effort I put into part time is completely dependent on my free lance job. There are times when I'm focusing on my freelance and only want to maintain a presence here. During those times, 25-50 listings work just fine for me. When I'm in between freelance jobs and need additional income I have to bump that up. If one of my nieces or nephews are available and need the extra cash I call them in to help so I can do that as quickly as possible

The last time I paid someone to help I paid them for $50 a day for two 5 hour days. I'm not particularly fast and we started from scratch - ironing/steaming and taking pics - but I got 40 pieces listed and more I was able to quickly photo and list the following week because they were already prepped. I concentrated on getting up my highest profit items first, so my help actually only cost me the profit from a few items (maybe 3 or 4) - out of 40 plus items listed due to their help. If I were you I would hire someone just for a weekend (or your days off) to bump up my numbers. If you have more VB, I'd concentrate on those first or anything that brings you a higher profit. I wouldn't let myself be drowning in inventory. Something you'll hear here a lot is 'you can't sell it if you don't list it.' Best of luck!

Re: Hiring someone to help

I would pay by the hour if you can work with him/her. Someone unfamiliar with the process isn't going to be as fast as you, but if you work side by side, you can control their speed to some degree. Maybe you can write listings or take photos while they take measurements.

Re: Hiring someone to help

There is another clever vintage seller. Her niece was always mentioning Face Book and showed her photos taken by others at school events... and photos of her friends hobbies etc etc... all posted in FB on the accounts of her friends. The girl had not much on her FB page... did not have a lot of computer skills... and did not have a decent camera to take her own photos.

So the seller bought her a camera with a macro for her birthday. And showed the girl how to take a photo and add to FB etc. The girl was thrilled and was taking great photos within 2 months. The seller injured her finger... no biggie... but used it to try to get the girl to help with ebay. It was a easy leap to gently push the girl into taking photos of ebay items for her and offer some money too.

The girl actually like it and learned how to clean and check over each item for issues... measurements on a sticky... shipping... a little of everything except for actually writing descriptions and entering info into the listing.

Sometimes it works using a young relative to do tasks if they develop an interest in the activity. If there is no interest, then it usually does not work out. Showering a lot of compliments on their efforts in the beginning might lead to developing an interest too.

Re: Hiring someone to help

I know this has been discussed before, but I really need some advice from those of you who hire someone to help with your listings. I am drowning in inventory. I can find items, the problem is getting the pics taken and getting them listed. The thrill of the hunt is great for me, but I also work full time and I just don't want to spend my free time listing anymore. My husband is retired and wants to spend time together when I'm not working. How do you pay someone,by the hour - by the piece? I have a friend who would love to do the listings - I just want to be fair in what I pay her. Suggestions?

Pardon if I'm blunt here,^^^ in red, but why are you even doing ebay...If you like the "thrill of the hunt" just shop for your own wardrobe...Can you really make enough money to pay someone an hourly wage and their taxes...Fica, SS.....I know I can't...or do you sell High end designer items that bring in hundrds of dollars...If this is just a hobby I don't see the point...No snark, JMO